Page 44 of Dead Air
“Oh…sugar!” Cenn clapped a hand over his forehead, stunned at his foolishness. “No oneis supposed to know about that or else it would be open season on demons. We had them going with that ‘old priest, young priest’ schtick.” He quickly calculated and ran through various scenarios and his confidence evaporated. “He stitched me right up, didn’t he?”
“Indeed. And young Niall as well,” Oglethorpe said with a sad sigh in Niall’s direction.
“Me? How? I’m nothing. I’m a no one,” he insisted, shaking his head but Cenn had a terrible sinking feeling.
“No…” He turned and paced to the open door and everyone cleared as he strolled out onto the porch, reweighing every option and reanalyzing every possible outcome. “I was going to break the deal,” he muttered to himself as he strode back into the cabin. “I’d lose my horde but Niall would be spared…”
Niall’s jaw fell open. “You can’t do that!Whywould you do that? I’m not powerful at all or even that special.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Oglethorpe held up a finger and wagged it at Niall but he was watching Cenn. “You’ve already died a symbolic yet significant death. You made a terriblesacrifice when you left your old life and turned up here with nothing but your free will and two mix tapes.”
“Damn it!” Cenn punched at the air. “I was so sure that Dùbhghlas was too wrapped up in his feud with you and the sun god that I’d have the upper hand.”
There was a knowing hum from Oglethorpe. “It’s a win/win no matter how the cards fall for Hugh Dùbhghlas,” he said, snorting ruefully. “You deliver young Niall’s soul and he’s one mortal death away from an eternity of servitude. You fail and Hugh getsyouwith one strike left. He gets all of your souls, your free will, and when he has one of his other minions kill you, all that you are will cease to exist and he will have all the powers of Cenn Cruach.”
MacIlwraith winced, his finger slowly rising. “That would be a very bad thing.”
“No kidding,” Cenn snapped back. “Flick, flick, flick…” He began pacing again. “I wouldn’t mind the ceasing to exist part, if I’m being honest?—”
“Cenn!” Niall protested but Cenn silenced him with a hard look.
“You don’t know howlongI have been here. You don’t know what it’s like to forget love and hope, to feel nothing but malice. The only yearning I know is for souls but I lost mine so long ago that all I can remember is the emptiness and the endless drive to pull the entire world into this void with me,” he said, his voice trembling with self-disgust. “Show me the exit and I will take it! But I won’t let him have you, Niall. You are mine and you will always be free.”
“There will be a high price to pay, then,” Oglethorpe predicted as he sank onto Niall’s only chair, groaning as he stretched his legs. “Hugh has your horde of souls and you will be marked for death. They will seek you out and drag you back to him in chains. It’s the binding clause in every demonic deal.”
Cenn nodded. “You can’t trust a demon’s honor so there has to be a severe penalty. We’re nothing without those souls, just a jumped up púca or a sluagh,” he said with a sneer but Oglethorpe chuckled.
“You’re trouble enough without those souls but Hugh could become something too dark and dangerous for Nox and I to contend with if he consumes all that you know and possess.”
“I thought you and MacIlwraith were his end game,” Cenn admitted. “I foolishly assumed that Niall was just a pawn and that I would be the one holding Dùbhghlas’s soul after the two of you outsmarted him.”
“I still could be,” Niall said, raising his hand. “He gets very little if he gets my soul and then I’d end up with Cenn when he loses.”
The powerful pixie let out a startled yelp, shaking his head as he peeked between the twins. “You wouldn’t be you anymore! I’ve seen stolen souls before and it’s awful. You wouldn’t even know you were with him!”
“Right.” Niall swallowed loudly, his gaze skipping around the room before it landed on Cenn. “But he could dolessdamage and there’s a better chance that you all could beat him if he only gets my soul.”
The thought alone made Cenn sick and he wanted to burn the entire forest to the ground. “No. Absolutely not,” he stated, his hand slicing the air. “No one touches your soul except me and it stays with you, intact,” he added with a threatening look at Oglethorpe. “There will be no compromise as far as Niall is concerned.”
“Do I get any say in the matter?” he asked and Cenn shook his head.
“You’re too young and too pure—too selfless—to decide,” he said, cutting Niall off when he started to argue. “Why do you think Dùbhghlas chose you? He is counting on you to be thesacrificial lamb and for me to do whatever it takes to save my own skin. That’s what demons do and when you turn a saint into a demon, you get a baby terminator.”
The sun god’s throne woke up. “How does that work?” Nelson asked, looking up from his notepad.
Cenn waved at Niall. “This man is pure empathy and has an immense capacity for kindness. Serving others is his greatest passion,” he said, looking around the room and through to the porch to see if anyone didn’t agree or believe him. “It’s damn near impossible to make a deal with someone like Niall. But once all that empathy and kindness is gone, the hunger to fill that gaping emptiness is unquenchable and unstoppable.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true…” Niall traced a stitch on his quilt with the tip of his finger. “I have other passions,” he mumbled.
“Carnal passions don’t count because that’s just nature and your passions are extremely natural,” Cenn said and ignored the odd burst of warmth in his chest as he pictured Niall in his natural, carnal glory.
“That’s strange,” MacIlwraith said as he pointed at Cenn. “I felt a tickle of something there but it wasn’t dark and demonic.”
“Demon lust,” Cenn said with a bored wave.
MacIlwraith stared at Niall for several moments. “There’s a lot of smoke in his soul but it doesn’t seem to be corrupting him.”
“There’s an echo in here because I swear, I just said that.” Cenn rolled his eyes. “He’s fine and I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to Niall. We never made a deal and I’ve kept him safe.”
